On December 28 the Head of the Donetsk People's Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, attended "Straight Talk" discussion program at the local UNION TV channel. He promised that soon Donetsk industry products would compete German ones in Russian markets.

"As for mechanical engineering, well, you know now we don’t have outlet to sale our goods. In 2017 this situation will change because our factories of mechanical engineering are quite popular in Russia and we are even capable of competing with Germany in that sphere. Because the standards on our factories are higher than in Germany," Zakharchenko said.